Various devices have already been proposed for the cleaning of waste pipes or drains. U.S. Pat. No. 1,312,404, for example, describes a rod terminating at its lower end in a corkscrew-shaped member supporting a collar to which a plurality of links resembling the struts of an umbrella frame are articulated. U.S. Pat. No. 2,255,914 shows a train of scraper units with resilient arms, held together by a flexible core. Danish Pat. No. 41,271 teaches the use of a closed-bottom bell at the lower end of a tubular shaft, a rod movable in that shaft carrying a ring adapted to open or close two lateral apertures near the bottom of the bell which therefore forms a receptacle for mud to be lifted to the surface.
As far as I am aware, however, the only prior-art tools able to reach and remove matter clogging a relatively inaccessible part of a convoluted pipe are the rather unhandy snaking wires used by plumbers for this purpose.